WTF Friday.

Well really.

Probably one of the most effed up Fridays ever.

What's with that shooting in Newtown, CT?!?!?

I cried today for those poor babies and their families...what is wrong with people?!

Like that guy who carved a huge pentagram into his six year old son's back because it was 12.12.12.

The shooting at that mall a few days ago.

The guys who plotted to kill Justin Bieber.

And don't we have missiles in Turkey now too?

{that's how the Cuban Missile Crisis happened in the 1960's, yo}

Really, WTF Friday?

...

On more personal WTF Friday notes...

Thanks to the amazing giveaway I helped cohost with Wifessionals and some other lovely bloggy friends, this morning I had 214 followers with GFC.

Now I have 212.

Well, sorry for being boring!  Let not the door hit yer arse on yer way oooot!

I just noticed, as it's nine on a Friday night and I'm beached on le couch in my jammies, as I was watching the opening credits of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation...that the family name before Griswold on Santa's list...is Grimes.

Yeah, like Rick Grimes.

Like the Walking Dead main character.

Sheeeeahhhhhh.

Ok that is all.

Oh, and earlier I went to a party with my fiance {clearly fun, as evidenced by my being home at nine on a Friday night} and I looked cute.  It was a sad waste though - there were people there in their pajamas, I kid you not.  I would have instagram proof, but alas, the white zinfandel was kickin in.

A little more Coffee Talk

1. What is your winter "must haves"? (Feel free to show off something from Polyvore!)

Ok this is kind of a must have / need to buy list! LOL.  Comfy hoodie, cozy uggs (or as in my house, my "fuggs", fake uggs) cute jewelry, and sparkly nail polish!

Winter comfort by traci-horschel featuring juicy couture

Victoria s Secret zip hoodie
victoriassecret.com

UGG Australia black flat booties
$64 - danielfootwear.com

Juicy couture
juicycouture.com

Nordstrom nail care
nordstrom.com

Tiny Initials necklace Personalized heart jewelry by BeautySpot
etsy.com

2. What is on your Christmas wishlist this year? (I know this has been asked, but I wanna know!)

Ya know, there's always stuff I want {as I've posted before, I am by no means a minimalist and have large tendencies towards hoarding and I'm kind of materialistic}, but I really really just want miracles to happen for other people this year.  After everything my family has gone through in the past couple years with my brother in law's cancer {fyi, I am including his family in with mine, because they are and will always be a part of our family}, and losing my grandmother before that {ok, like 25 years ago, but seriously that still hurts} I just want one of the families I know that is going through this same cancer shit right now to be able to say their loved one is in remission.  Because really, cancer is the devil and it's the most horrible thing I can even think of happening...and I just really want those people I'm thinking of to be ok.

 

3. What is your favorite holiday coffee/tea/alcoholic beverage?

 I am obsessed with mcd's Peppermint Mocha!

4. Top 3 must have holiday desserts?

-My fiance's grandma Marge makes this amazing Grasshopper pie! {mint chocolate - holy yum!}

-My grandma's Apple Pie.

-pumpkin pie!!

5. What time do you get up to open presents from Santa with your family? Do you clean up right away or do you leave it there in a huge pile until it's the night before trash day?

So, I'm 26.  I haven't lived with my parents in like 8 years.  But, every single year, my siblings and I would still spend the night Christmas eve (eventually even with our significant others!) to all open gifts together still first thing Christmas morning.  Then my parents tore down their house to build a bigger one, so the past few years we've all just been meeting up first thing Christmas morning to still do the early morning open gift thing!  This year will be even better because we'll be celebrating my baby nephew's first Christmas!!  And of course, we always have garbage bags ready for wrapping paper.  {we don't get my fiance's daughter for Christmas mornings, so we always celebrate the morning with my family!}

6. What is your New Years resolution?  
To  be happy. 

Linking up with Nat!

...

A few more things...

Did you remember to enter the iPad Mini giveaway?  

No?  You should do it now!  It ends tonight!

I will be posting some fun holiday tutorials in the next week, so stay tuned!!

My fiance and I discovered that Sanford & Sons is on the retro tv station every night....guess what our new night time ritual is??

 

Instagram makes my life seem so cool.

Really, I'm not a very exciting person.

I can usually be found at home on the couch, or making crafty things, or at work.

Or shopping.

But, now that I have an iPhone. Finally. I have become instantly addicted to Instagram.

And it makes my life seem so much cooler than it is.

Or, am I just getting out more now that I have a cool phone with which to share pictures that no one really needs to see anyway?

I may never know...

making peanut blossoms with my love. yummm.



homemade pizzas for my cousin's 6th birthday. my family rocks.




how cute is this hair??  sock bun. hairband from knotieties. bow earrings from sassysteals.



monday night bowling. yeah, that's me with an 84. represent.

delicious iced peppermint mocha from mcd's.  and my amazing betsey johnson bag.  got it @ marshalls.

feeling pretty today



On being beautiful.

I originally posted a variation of this back in May, when my blog was still tiny (and really, it IS still pretty tiny!) and I keep coming back to this post.  The past few months have been rough for me, and this, my own words, kind of keep me balanced. 

"Real women have curves."

I used to be comforted by this quote.
Never having been a size 2, even in middle school (seriously, that train just straight up missed me!) I was eager to grasp onto the idea that I was prettier than the "skinny girls", by virtue of having boobs.  I was a C cup by the eighth grade!  My sisters were always these skinny little things, and I knew that would never be me.

It took me a long time to realize that real women come in different shapes and sizes.

Not all women were built to be a size 14 or more, just as not all women were built to be a size 0.

Skinny isn't bad.

Chubby isn't bad.

{AsYouWishPrinting}

Real women are healthy.

It's not about your jean size.

It's about how you feel when you wake up in the morning.

It's about learning to love yourself for who you are, not who you think others want you to be.

It's about learning to have confidence in yourself.

{via}

Real women are confident.

Size 20, size 2 - if you're insecure, or selfish, or catty, or kindhearted, it shows through.

A woman can be ugly at a size two, and beautiful at a size 20.

It's about attitude.

You can wear all the makeup and expensive clothes in the world, it doesn't cover up ugliness inside.

Be kind.  Inner beauty always shows through.

{mirilovelove}

...


I'm not a size two.  Or a size 6, or even a 12.
I'm a size 14. (Except in my special pants.)
I'm often too large to fit in XL shirts in my favorite stores.
I'm too small to fit into plus sized clothing.
I'm stuck in the world of in-between.

But.
I am Beautiful.
I can say this with with conviction, because I know it to be true.
It's not because of my makeup, or expensive clothes.
It's not because I've been blessed with a really great complexion, and my hair stylist is amazing.

It's because I have confidence in myself.
It's because I do my best every day to banish negativity from my life.
It's because I try every day to do something nice for someone else.
It's because I truly love myself, and who I am.
Getting there was a long and hard road, and I wouldn't change it for anything.
Every single step along the way, good and bad, have made me into who I am today.

My fiance's constant reassurances that I'm perfect don't hurt either ;-)

I know I'm not *actually* perfect.
I have many flaws.
I'm not always the nicest, most positive person in the world.

But I try to be.
I know that my voice alone can't change the world.

But if one simple thing that I post on the internet, helps one person who might be struggling with their self image, and their self esteem, then I have done my job as a human being to help someone else.
Making a difference can be as small as a smile.

All I want for Christmas is an iPad mini...

Ok, not really. I just became as technologically advanced as my mother with my new iPhone, which pretty much covers my bases for now.

But...if I could get one...

Well that would be awesome.

Assuming you're a living, breathing member of the human race, and equally as obsessed with technology as most seventeen year old girls (or really nerdy middle aged guys), you know you want one too, right?

Want to get one...for free???

I'm teaming up with THE greatest lady friends of all time to give one lucky person an iPad Mini this week.

1// Kaitlyn  2// Kaitlin  3// Meg  4// Samantha 5// Brandi  6// Emily  7// Allie  8// Emily 9// Karla  10// Laura  11// Carisa  12// Casey 13// Allie  14// Carolynn  15// Natalie  16// Jami 17// Anna  18// Traci  19// Lauren  20// Ashley 21// Andrea  22// Ashley  23// Christina  24// Melissa 25// Ashlee  26// Kristyn  27// Sara  28// Brittany

Black or White? You choose. Want something engraved? Sure!
All you gotta do is use the Rafflecopter below to your heart's delight.
The giveaway will run through 11:59pm on Thursday (12/13), so get moving!!!!

RULES
1// Giveaway is open to US RESIDENTS only
2// Winner will be notified via email on Friday 12/14/12. You will have 48 hours from the timestamp on the email to respond, or a new winner will be chosen.
3// WINNER WILL BE VERIFIED. If you claim to have done a task you did not - a new winner will be chosen!!!
4// View the Terms & Conditions listed on the Rafflecopter below

Now why don't you enter and win yourself an iPad Mini (:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The ribbon on my wrist says "do not open before Christmas"...

Not really sure why the only thing on my mind right now is Fall Out Boy lyrics, but whatever.

I'm down with the 2000's.  Bring it.

our pretty little christmas tree.  & pretty Merry Christmas banner too!

dear mom: thank you for making this the best december everrr! i am so excited about ferdinand and so excited about our new iPhones. love you forever.

dear headache: please don’t turn into a migraine! i know you were nice enough to go away yesterday for me, please do the same today!

dear diet dr pepper: you suck. a lot. like really really bad. why did I decide today is the day to skimp on calories???

dear recent followers: yay and welcome!! 

dear fiancé: sorry sometimes i’m straight up bat crap crazy. thank you for loving me anyway.

dear pizza placed that shall remain nameless:  seriously? is it that hard to NOT put mayo on a sub?? super awesome that i paid $8 for a sub i can't even eat now...and can't do anything about because lunch is over. thanks.

Coffeeeeeee Talkie.

{I've been slacking in the linkup department lately.

I know, I know.

And I love this one because the questions are always so fun, but man I suck at answering them lately.}

Answering this week's Coffee Talk questions with Nat.

All about the couples:

1. How did you meet your partner?

Well, I met my man {Weston} when I was a freshman in high school.  There was this guy I had a crush on, thanks to ripped abs and long hair, and Weston was that guy's friend.  Oh, and West's high school girlfriend rode my school bus, so I used to write bus passes for him {yes mama nise I totally forged your name...sorry!} so I could flirt with him on the ride home.

2. How did you feel about your partner when you first met them?

Well after I got over my crush on his friend {who I ended up dating for nine months, he really is a great guy} I had an even bigger crush on him. And then he finally started dating me for a minute...and then we broke up because his ex was pregnant...well he broke up with her when she was pregnant to date me and actually broke up with me because I wouldn't put out {way to go fifteen year old me! keep them legs closed gurl} and I am a horrible person for dating a guy with a pregnant girlfriend but...I had NO idea she was pregnant at that time!  I was fifteen, I just thought she was getting fat! LMAO

3. Where was your first date taken place?

I guess our first "date" in high school was me coming to his house after school to hangout...unless skipping classes and making out all over the entire school counts haha.  Our first "date" for our grown up relationship wasn't much better...it was a drunk hookup.  But look at how great we turned out, huh?  :)

4. Where do you see y'all in 5 years?

Married.  Happy as a duck in water.  Hopefully with no kids on the way because my sister was much too graphic in describing pregnancy so now I'm totally terrified of ever having children! haha!!

5. Show a picture of you and your partner!

How about a bunch?

A winner, some random stuff, and such.

Well let's begin at the beginning, shall we?

Guess who won the $25 credit to my shop, LolitaRose?

Sarah from Loveee, Sarah!

Secondly, I finally got a smartphone!

An iPhone to be specific.

I'm finally as cool as my mom {who's had one since the first gen...i think} and every 17 year old girl I know.

of course this means that...

I now have an Instagram, as well as a Twitter :)

Well I already told you guys I'm on Twitter.  But whatever, now there's easy access. Whoooop!

C, I got my free glasses from Firmoo today.

Four, I took a picture of my 12 Days of Christmas swap package that I shipped yesterday, and wanted to share it because it looks so darn purty.

Finally, and most importantly, I don't know how many of you are familiar with MamaLaughlin's blog.

She's pretty fantastic for a lot of reasons, but this month in particular she's melting my heart.

See, she and a couple other awesome bloggers have started this Pay it Forward Christmas thing, and people from all over have submitted stories of people and families who need help this season.  Some are just asking for prayers, some need a little more than that.

 This story in particular touched my heart:

"My name is Emily and I am writing about my sister Sarah. 

My sister had her 3^rd child, a boy, delivered a month early in November of 2011.  He was born in renal (kidney) failure.  

Over the last year (365 days) he has been in the hospital 108 days and had over 12 surgeries.  Most recently they deemed him unable to receive dialysis so we now wait for him to hopefully grow big enough to receive a kidney transplant. 

My sister lives in Des Moines, IA and my nephew Teddy has been treated all this time in Iowa City, over 2 hours away.  Our parents have both passed away so being alone during all this (I’m 4+ hours away) has been a struggle I wouldn’t wish on anyone. 

I know there are people everywhere with sick children but my sister has been the strongest advocate for her little man over the last year. Everything else in her life has had to fall by the wayside.  Her two other kids (4, 8) have been apart from their mom for so many days that my niece (4) now plays with her dolls and pretends they “reuniting” with their mommy while playing.  That’s all she’s done the last year is be apart and then reunite with her mommy. 

{Here} is my sister’s blog. She is an amazingly eloquent writer and while she wants really only prayers to fix her son, I would do anything to give her a smile on her face or on the faces of my niece and nephews.  I don’t have a specific wish for her, but something to brighten their days would be a huge blessing."

Please take five minutes to check out her site, and see what she's doing, and see if there is anyone you want to help this holiday season.

Keep tuned in to check out my second giveaway of December, and to check out some cool DIY gift ideas!!